natural death -- ends at natural death. what the court did is that they undefined the institution of marriage. it is not about same-sex marriage, it is about anything goes marriage. i have a lot of good friend to see differently on this issue. about god'sbeing standard. for people of faith, let your light shine. wonjob isn't about, you every time. never let that light go out. host: thank you for your time, sir. guest: thank you, pedro. for our program today. more events coming. i will caucus coming up on this

program. -- i will caucus coming up on this program. up on thiscus coming program. we will see you then. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> congressional democrats are wrapping up their annual retreat in baltimore, maryland. they had been discussing their strategy for the next year. craig kaplan is there. tolls.e hearing from tom caucuses or monday. our road to the white house coverage continues on monday at the candidates continue to

crisscrossed the states today in over the weekend. here is the lineup. governor chris christie holding an event in out tuna, iowa. meeting with voters in carroll, iowa. and ben carson traveling with cityor meeting in iowa live on c-span two. >> the weekend prior to the caucuses -- there will be a frenzy of activity across iowa. there are so many candidates on the republican side. there are three viable candidates on the democratic side. each of them -- there will be events today. we are looking for a consecutive a sense of what it is like to campaign for the caucuses. keep in mind what is his organization. need to make sure those people who support you get to the caucuses. it is going to be interesting to

see how the candidates are trying to close the deal, sell their message, and convince those people who might be on the a or to go for candidate candidate b. weekend, live coverage of the presidential candidates in iowa. sunday night on q&a, author scott christiansen provides his thoughts on the documents that have the greatest impact on the world from the magna carta and the declaration of independence to martin luther king jr.'s i have a dream speech. >> there is a lot of chris's of snowden, -- criticism of snowden. anre is a view that he is american hero. questionpeople to

who has the authority over documents. >> sonny kim at 8:00 eastern on c-span q&a. -- sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span q&a. held a campaign for veterans as opposed to go to the debate. that he was the most mentioned in the debate. we are going to show you at his event. this is an hour. ♪ ladies and gentlemen, the next president of united states trump a.nald j. think of me in the depths of

your despair. mr. trump: oh wow! thank you. there is a vet! we love our vets! sit down, please. we have had 24 hours to put this together. .t was very, very quick we are here for some very special people and we are going to hear from some of them. this is an honor. i really did want to be here. all the online polls have done very well with the debates. i have had a cake with it.

but you have to stick up for your rights. when you are treated badly, you have to stick up for your rights. [applause] you have to do it. and whether we like it or not, whether it is something we want to do are not -- as an example, iran, with a have been dealing with us. the deal is one of the worst deals i have ever seen. we just take it. we have to stick up for ourselves as people, and we have to stick up for our country when we are being mistreated. remember that. [applause] and i have to go a step further and say that fox has been extremely nice the last number of hours. [laughter] they have wanted me there and they said, how about now i? start and lethem

them be 50 minute into that our -- hour. it is like the academy awards. [applause] we were told we have more cameras than they do by quite a bit. [applause] , that is really in honor of our vets. they have been very nice and wanted me to go and apologize and everything else. they could not -- once it started, this is for our vets, there was nothing i could do. i don't know. a good thing, a bad thing, will i get more votes, will i get less votes? knows? hell we raised over $5 million in one day! [laughter] [applause] so, that is not so bad. my whole thing is make america

great again. that is what we are going to do. he wouldn't have even been here if it wasn't for our vets. our vets are being mistreated. illegal immigrants are being treated better than our vets and a lot of cases, and it is not going to happen anymore. [laughter] [applause] so, once this ball started rolling, we cannot stop it. this took place less than 24 hours. we had less and 20 for hours to do this because i said i was not going to do the debate. i love iowa. we got to do something. i did not know we were going to raise $5 million. we actually rate closer to $6 million to be totally honest. there is a lot more to come. -- ww up a site

w.donaldtrumpforvets.com. we have some incredible people. i want to call at some of the people who get a lot of money. then we will have someone come up to speed who is an incredible speaker. someone who really, really understands what events are going through. first, we have to talk about people who make a lot of money. they would not even be here if it wasn't for the vets in our great military. gutsilitary has a lot more than you, we have different kinds of guts. carl icahn gave $500,000. that was with one quick phone call. a builder in new york city gave $100,000. [laughter] [applause] donald trump, another great builder in new york, now a politician -- i don't want to be called a politician -- all talk,

no action, i refuse to be that way, donald trump gave $1 million. [laughter] [applause] the fisher family of new york gave $75,000. [applause] a great fan and friend of our family -- $100,000. [applause] very, very rich man in new york in a very good friend of mine and he wants to be anonymous for the first time in his like. -- and his life. meaid, do me a favor, give $1 million. i said it is for the vets. he said, you got it. he wanted to be anonymous. he has changed. you know who i am talking about. two years ago -- yes?

[chanting] it really is too crazy. i love protests at my rallies. this is a beautiful place, but we have thousands of people outside that weren't as good as relates -- good as real estate as you folks are. we have thousands of folks trying to get in. we set up cameras and screened and everything. i will tell you, i love the protesters in the big arena's because the cameras never move. they're always in my face. melania, my wife --

stand up. she has to suffer through this. [applause] , and it is always broadcast. this, crazy. i say, how did i do? she says, you did great. she says, how many people were there? i say, there were a lot of people. we get the biggest crowds by far. much bigger than bernie, although i have to say, he is second. no other republican -- that we get the biggest crowds. but they never show the crowd. i realize that they never turned the camera. i always say, i figured, maybe the our new camera they cannot turn. [laughter] out isy way you find when there is a protester. you can have protesters at the then they turn it.

but they don't want to show the crowd. good guy who has become a little reclusive -- $1 million. he is a great guy. [applause] [laughter] manave another unbelievable from marvel. he did such an unbelievable job. one of the great, great men of our country. giving $1 million. [applause] jay jay from cleveland weather made a lot of money, $50,000. thank you. mine,r great friend of one of the most brilliant men you will ever meet, a phenomenal world-class poker player. he does not do that for a living. you cannot make a deal with this guy and come out on top, it is

impossible. about him am thinking negotiating for china. [applause] china, the sheer in trade, will take over 500,000 -- $500 billion in terms of our trade deficit. but hundred billion dollars. that is no partnership. i love free-trade. we have to use our head. we use political hacks to negotiate with the chinese. they have the smartest people. i love the chinese. they buy my apartments for millions. i have the largest bank in the world and china and one of my buildings. i love them. i am not blaming the chinese. i am angry at the politicians because we have people incompetent running our country. what should we be losing in trade deficits $500 billion a year? if i took a guy like this, put him in charge, his wife is so

incredible, would you both, up? come on a. -- come on up. come up. [applause] [applause] >> he has never had anything, everything he touches turns to gold. whatever deal he goes through. he bought a piece of land in las vegas, so that a few years later and make plenty of money for $1.3 billion. when he gives $1 million, that is like $.10. just a couple of words. [applause] thank you. i would like to introduce my alexandria.

two years ago, i said donald, if you ever run for president, i will give you $1 million. well, he ran, i gave him $1 million, he sent it back. [laughter] [applause] said, i can't take your money. i couldn't leave it. in any case, he is a great man. happy, my wife and i will donate $1 million to your charity. thank you. [applause] mr. trump: he actually sent me a million dollars and said there is 10 or 20 more if you need it. i sent it back.

i am still finding my own campaign, right? [applause] life, i made money. i have a great imagination. i did well. my father said, everything you touches turns to gold. everything my, boy touches turn to gold. all happened was i turned this money down. they are calling because they want to give me all this money. the number one, they want to control you. they recall you and said, remember, i gave you $1 million. what happens is, all my life, i am turning down millions. i was in iowa and a different location, we had 4000 people, and i said listen, i don't feel good about turning down money. because my whole license, i have been greedy, greedy, greedy. i grabbed all the money i could get.

now i want to be greedy for the united states and grabbed all that money. [applause] i want to be greedy for the united states. it's true. i was held guilty. felt guilty. the cover of time magazine this week is a cover story -- there it is -- hold it up. they have the back of my head with a massive crowd in front of me in there covering this story. i did not even know they were doing the story. it is a cover of "time." actually a movement. what is happening, i said to the crowd, let me ask you, could i take all this money? i am turning away so much money. stand up, please. everyone went crazy. no, no, no! there was one guy in the back corner of the room.

he was a crooked looking guy. he looks like such a crook. he said, it is ok to take it. i looked and said i don't want anything to do with that guy. [laughter] a little bit foolish not taking the money. but you look at it like jeb bush -- extremely low, maybe he is looking for me. he is saying, has anyone seen trump? where is he? [applause] [laughter] jeb, $120 million. people i know, killers like cam. they put up $5 million, $2 million, $8 million -- lobbyists, special interests. whenever we have a problem -- i i wasying the other day,

on the other side. seven months ago, i was on the other side, a big ever. i know these people. $6ieve me, when they put in million, $5 million, they want something for it. when you see these horrible deals that are being made and they are horrible -- the politicians aren't that stupid. irans it possible that just got $150 billion from this country one of the dumbest deals ever and they just went out in their first purchase is 114 airbus jets, not boeing jets. tonk of it -- then they go russia and thereby missiles. if the clock does not stop taking. then they do self inspections. ,e didn't get our prisoners

hostages, we did not get them ,ack, but then we get the money and we paid $150 billion. it sets a bad tone for kidnapping that is a disgrace. who could believe this is going on? airbus gets our jets. russia gets our missiles. they're not supposed to be ordering. everybody is getting the money but us. when you see the politicians and say, man, that is a that deal, how can anybody be so stupid? the reason is the politicians are being taken care of by their lobbyists and special interests that have interest with their -- have interest with airbus, russia, missiles, interest with all of these people that have taken at $150 billion. one of the things, by the way, mike huckabee is sitting right here. [applause] get up. great guy. and rick santorum.

where is rick? rick. [applause] fellas, these two are not in that category. they are the only two politicians -- come on. come on up. [applause] stand up here. [applause] and mrs. huckabee, and rick's daughter, stand up, stand up. [chanting usa] mr. trump: they would never do something like that.

they are not bad for the politicians. they are better for the country and that is why i don't take anything. we are going to do what is right for the country. thank you. i want to ask rick and mike to say a few words. how do they do? if you did poorly, you probably would not be here right now, you would be depressed, right? mike, say a few words, we would love it. [applause] >> thank you so much. i will stand a little bit over .ere i am supporting another candidate for president. [laughter] that doesn't mean we can't work together when it comes to helping our veterans and that is why mike and i are here tonight. [applause] i grew up on a ba ground -- my

parents worked with the veterans administration for four years. i heard my parents talk about beenhe va system has degraded over time. it used to be the best health care system in the world. it is not the best health care system in the world. we have an obligation to do something to make sure our veterans have the best possible health care in the world. [applause] we can get them that by allowing every veteran to go to any hospital in their community and get the care they need when they need it! [applause] we also have to say to our veterans administration, let the private sector take care of this stuff. i hope a lot of the money that is raised goes for that. 22 that's a day commit suicide. 22 beth a day!

vets a day. let's take care of our vets with their mental health problems. [applause] i appreciate all those folks who raised money. let's put some of that money towards putting that to win and women with helped us the most. god bless you and thank you for being here tonight. [applause] >> i figure you were going to get the photo anyway, so i figure i will just been here and get it over with. let me bery clear -- very clear, rick santorum, donald trump, we all may be competitors in a presidential

race, but tonight, we are colleagues in unison standing here for the people who let us breathe every breath of free air we breathe. the veterans of united states of america, without you -- [applause] [chanting usa] >> in my mind, i was hearing you , go huck go! thumbs up is not that kind of person. i want to say thank you donald trump for asking rick santorum and me. i think he would've let any of the other candidates come -- for

reasons, i don't understand, they are not here. perhaps because they had a slot at 8:00. i did not have one, so it worked out great for me. [laughter] but it says something about him that he would bring us to his own event because bigger than even the election is the fact that we wouldn't have free elections in this country if it weren't for the people who stood between bullets, bombs, and our freedoms. and thank you! [applause] thingant to do one simple tonight and i will turn it back to donald trump. 2005, a very good friend of mine who teaches ,chool in little rock, arkansas did something pretty extraordinary on the first day of school. she got permission of the principal -- she had all the desks from her classroom removed

. every desk taken out. the kids came in for first her dadnd they said, was a world war ii pow -- when they come in, they said where are our desks? she said, you don't get a desk into you tell me how you earn it. she's said the grace will not give you -- get you a desk. maybe we can behave. deskaid, you don't get a by behaving. --rd period, fourth period kids are calling their kids saying that the teacher has lost her mind and want let us have a desk. news organizations from little rock started coming out to the high school to figure out what has happened with this teacher

because she has taken all of the desk out of the classroom. last period of the day, the kids came in at the same question, where are our desk? and she said, you have to tell me how you earn it. none of them did. he said, i guess i am going to have to explain it to you. martha walked over to the door of her classroom, opened it, and 27 u.s. veterans wearing their uniforms from various wars walked in they brought those desks in and desk lined them up in rows. . lined them up in rows. as they did, martha cochran said, kids, you do not have to earn your desk because these guys already did. that is why you have a school desk. that is why you have an education. and that is why you have the united states of america. god bless you and thank you.

[applause] [chanting "u.s.a."] mr. trump: two amazing people. really great people. i have gotten to know them very well, being on the trail, as they say. and i'm very happy with what is going on on the trail. i have had an amazing period of time. i am not going to do polls tonight. i usually like to get up and do polls. mike said, why do you keep doing those polls? i said, because they are so good. we have had amazing polls in iowa. we have had amazing polls no matter where we have been, and we are leading by substantial margins in iowa and every single state. we are leading every national poll. [applause]

mr. trump: people are tired and they are sick of seeing what is going on in our country, how our military is being decimated. for tonight as an example, what is happening tonight, you see the kind of love in this room, amazing love. veterans are the most amazing people. we are going to take care of our veterans, so i think it is great. i'm going to introduce somebody who will speak for a little while. he will introduce you to a couple of his friends. john wayne walding has become a famous person. he should be much more famous than me because he is a lot more courageous than i am. i am financially courageous, but the other stuff, i am not so good. he spent 12 years in the united states army with seven of those years being in the third special forces, top-of-the-line. grew up at fort bragg, north carolina.

he has combat deployments to iraq and afghanistan. during his career at the third special forces group, the elite, these are the best he worked as operator withrces the sniper detachment and is a sniper instructor. he is a phenomenal world-class marksman. his military school experience include special forces, advanced urban combat, not easy. third s fg advanced sniper, , special forces qualifications courses and airborne assault. he has got every single thing in the book. john's awards and badges include the silver star, bronze star, purple heart, combat infantry badge, airborne aerosols, and air special forces. john participated in numerous battles during his deployment. most famous of all was the

battle of shok valley, which was a tough one, really a tough one. bad result and brilliant result. the victory was brilliant, but tremendous carnage. which you can read about in the new book "no way out: a story of valor in the mountains of afghanistan," john lost a leg. he is an amazing guy. i heard him speak once before and was so impressed, i asked him to come over and say a few words. and also introduce your very brave friends. john wayne. come on. [applause] john: thank you very much. i tell you what, i feel taller than burt reynolds up here getting introduced by donald trump. this is awesome. please sit down.

if you do not mind, i'm going to keep moving while i am talking because a moving target is harder to hit. in the military, we call this everybody going to sleep. i want to thank all of you for coming out. i am not here for politics. i want to make that absolutely clear. i'm here for people. i do not care if you are republican or democrat. i care about america. i have known donald trump junior for a while. he has never asked me for one thing politically. but what i know he has done is seen me at his hotel, trump international las vegas, while i was at a conference in las vegas. i was in the restaurant. me and mr. trump -- he was eating with willie robertson. "duck dynasty" guy. really cool guy. mr. trump left. he squatted next to my table and talked to me for almost an hour.

did not ask one thing, he just genuinely wanted to say hi and let me know he cared about my service and he wanted to make sure i had a good time. so i am here for people as great as he is. i hate how many people get a bad rap. a story i know that no one knows is that donald and his wife, a long time ago, they broke down. nobody would help them. finally, a couple stopped and helped them with their vehicle. guess what they did? they paid off their mortgage. do you ever hear about that? no. because they are people. genuine people. that is the movement that i think everybody in america is getting onto. he is unapologetically american. that is what we are -- american. absolutely. america is the greatest thing that happened to this planet in its existence. why should i ever say i am sorry

for that? tell me that. mr. trump says things that may not make you feel good, but it is the better thing for this great country. that is what i care about -- the better thing for this country. now why i am here, they told me at first i only have a little time. now, gettinge by me to talk for a little bit is as easy as finding hillary clinton's e-mails. [applause] [laughter] >> so i was very pleased to hear him say i could speak to you. for that, mr. trump, thank you very much. my name is john wayne walding. i am a green beret born on the fourth of july, and i am from texas. so you are welcome, america. [applause] john: you cannot write this. that is my true name, john wayne walding.

really was born on the fourth of july. i asked my dad when i was 16, why did you name me that? thinking i was probably going to get this great story about how he is a great american. he said it just like this -- you needed a cool name. he was kind of a hippie, but i'm glad he thought about it. i became a green beret. i did 12 years in the military, the majority of that in special forces as a green beret. people did not know that the true term for green beret is special forces. special operations is what they always make the navy seals and rangers and everybody else, that is what they fall under. special forces are the u.s. army green berets. one thing i did not know as a green beret while i was in, under that hat of special operations, 60% of all the missions done are done by green berets. why does no one know that? we do not write books or make movies.

we do the job. a good friend of mine was chris kyle. he was a navy seal. it was always real fun when we were at a training event. you got the army sniper, the navy seals sniper and it is like, you suck. no, you suck. it was fun banter back and forth. but we die the most, we get hurt the most. navy seal foundation, this is an old stat, but around 35 million and the green berets have about 3 million. that is one of the things americans don't realize. we do our job. our motto is "quiet professionalism." there is a true difference between "quiet" and "silent." that is what i trying to be as humbly as possible to let people know that the job of a green beret is we teach them to die for their country rather than us doing it. [applause] john: that is a pretty good mission, right? instead of sending 100 americans into a village to kill a bad

guy, why don't we send 15 green berets in to teach their army and let them do it? jfk in the 1960's actually let us have it. that is our job, and we are good at it. that is what we love to do. within 30 days of the towers falling, there were green berets in afghanistan. have not left yet and we are not going to leave. that is my propaganda. i am a little biased. but ok. i lost my leg in afghanistan in 2008 in a firefight in the battle of shok valley. we were not supposed to win. if you believe in god, that is why i believe in god. because there is no reason we should be alive. 15 americans went up with afghani commandos against 200 insurgents when they had the elevated position in the mountains. after six and a half hours, 70 danger-close airstrikes, 10 silver stars given, we won.

[applause] john: how awesome is that? zero american lives killed. how can you be a taliban or isis commander when 15 americans can go wipe out to hundred of you. i would not do it. so that is when i lost my leg. i got shot halfway through the battle. had to put a tourniquet on my leg along with the help of a fellow green beret. during the battle, it was folded halfway over and hanging by an inch of flesh. on the objective, i turned it into my groin -- i said "crotch" on international television, and i remember what my wife asked me. i say "groin" now. that is how i got off the mountain, carrying my leg and

fighting next to my brothers. that is not the end of the story. [applause] john: thank you. i tell everybody, you should see the other guy. that is not the end of the story, that is the beginning, and that is why i am here. that is the beginning of me learning the word "can't." i cannot walk. i cannot walk without the help of a prosthetic leg. let me tell you something -- that is some gut wrenching punch i hope none of you have to feel. husbandas a father, a and a provider for the family, when you lose that leg, that is an instant insecurity about, am i good enough? am i ok to make sure my family has food? can i still provide? three things is what made me get better. first and foremost is god. without him, we would be

nothing, amen? that is the first thing. the second thing is my wife and family. my beautiful wife, amy, who is at home watching i love you, , sugar. that is absolutely. my wife and family making sure i have that compass to look forward to at the end of the day and say thank you. the third thing that made me want to fight hard is you, great americans that get it. [applause] john: that absolutely get it. it is the americans that say words -- "thank you." never underestimate the magnitude of what the two words "thank you" mean to veterans. if you do not believe me, ask a vietnam guy. ask somebody in vietnam what it is like to come back and get spit on. ask someone from vietnam what it is like to be called a baby

killer. if i lost my leg for my country and got spit on, i would be homeless, single, and have an addiction problem. those two words, that mental validation, it says it is worth it. right? that is what everything we do, it says it is worth it. [applause] john: i like to joke and have fun. i always say that i make one-legged look good. i do not have a face for radio. i will be honest with you, i would be lying to you if i told you it did not suck being one-legged. it sucks not being able to walk to the bathroom in the middle of the night. it sucks when your kids want to play soccer and you cannot do it because you have been working all day at your real job, trying to make some money. but it is worth it. why? because thank you. great americans that say thank you, and it makes that mental

validation that says it is worth it, and what does that make me want to do? that makes me not want to be a husband, but a loving husband. not just a father, but a loving and compassionate father. somebody who wants to be with them. not just a citizen, but a successful, productive citizen of society, someone that wants to be with other americans and does not just want to be in the prison they call home because nobody validated their sacrifice. again, never underestimate the magnitude of what thank you means to veterans. [applause] john: so when i hear those two words, and someone says thank you, i say you are worth it. because you are worth fighting for. this is the best country to live. god bless you. [applause]

john: this is awesome. all right. so when you say thank you, i say you are worth it, and i mean it. let me tell you something else, though. we lose 22 vets a day commit a day to suicide and transition. when you get back, they give you a shopping cart full of drugs and say, take these. about after a year later, i realized i am healed. my leg ain't growing back, i tried. i tried. my incisions, stitches and everything are out, it is healed. but guess what? i still hurt every single day. fortunately, i have god, my family, and my country behind me. not everybody gets to feel that. you lose that compass. whenever you get out, people do

not care. everybody loves you and pats you on the back, but who's going to pay the bills? when you get out, you do not know where that compass is spinning. i challenge you to find a veteran that has a better work ethic and better dedication than a veteran. but when that compass is spinning, that is when the insecurity built in and immediately become sad this. i call it the boo-boo lip. i rarely bring it out, only at home. next comes depression. you get depressed, i suck at life. i cannot pay the bills. four walls become a prison. that is how it happens. i want to punch that in the mouth. i want to punch 22 vets committing suicide in the mouth. [applause] john: i want to speak specifically to veterans right

now. if you are having a problem and life sucks because you are one-legged or no-legged, or just a civilian, because it is we're going back to civilian life, when you see that compass spinning and you do not know what to do. when you start getting sad you , need to tell yourself you owe it to the fallen to live well. [applause] john: i have over 30 names embroidered in my center console. it is not because i think it is cool to see a bunch of names. i knew every single one of those names, and they are dead now. i have to stomach that. green berets, they teach you how to deal death but not deal with it. that is something we do not have, a coping mechanism. the 35th time you get that call saying, aaron belagio. or even worse, what if you are

stateside see that casket being lowered with the american flag and his wife is there with a , three-month-old baby he has not met. do you say i am sorry? what do you say to that? it is impossible to actually make a statement to say sorry for your loss. here is how you do that -- you live well for the fallen. that is a debt that you oh. if your life sucks, they win. right? that is something you cannot let happen. [applause] john: whenever you get that ,eeling that it is over whenever you get that feeling of hopelessness or sadness, remember, you go it to them to live well and that is the best middle finger you can give to the taliban and, is to live

great live awesome. [applause] myself everynd day, i wear this rain to remind me the 22 who have committed suicide. come on up here, sugar. john jake is the executive : director of the 22 kill project. we want to punch 22 veterans committing suicide in the mouth. jake is going to come up and talk about this and then we are going to present a ring to mr. trump tonight. [applause] jake: so much america, john wayne. so much america. i love it.

i cannot say it, sorry, brother. so while we are wearing these rings, i'm blessed to be part of a great organization. livesriors lose their every day to suicide. on average it is 22 a day. all three of us were war fighters and all three of us are brothers. this is unacceptable. so at 22killed.com we let the warriors know and their families know that they are worth it and to keep fighting the good fight. people wonder why we are the best military in the world. i will tell you why. because it is one team, one fight. we are all in it together. [applause] jake: that is how we're going to end the statistic.

so we wear these ring on our trigger fingers for a reason. this is not a fashion thing. this is a life thing. because this life is absolutely worth living. [applause] jake: so we are so proud to be here and honored to be here and i have only met mr. trump a short time, and his family. two of my brothers know him a do, but theiri word, it is gold. if they say so, it is so. [applause] jake: and with that, these honor rings mean so much to us and to highlight the fact that we lose 22 of our finest every day by their own hands and together we can crush that. we can stop it.

[applause] jake: so with that, before we do this presentation, i feel like i would be remiss if i didn't say to all of those in the audience tonight who served and family members who went through those deployments with them, thank you. thank you for being there and thank you for what you did. [applause] jake: and to our vietnam veterans, welcome home, welcome home. [applause] jake: and with that, i would like one of my best friends and fellow marines, get over here john wayne, to present mr. trump with his personal honor ring

that we brought for you. and that we hope that you wear it with pride, and remember the one team aspect. and we can make america great again together, brother. [cheers and applause] crowd: u.s.a! u.s.a! u.s.a! u.s.a! [applause]

[cheers] mr. trump: that was amazing. isn't that better than this debate that is going on right now? [applause] mr. trump: they are all sleeping. they are all sleeping. everybody. i see two of my friends in the audience, and they have become very famous and very rich. come on up. . these two are unbelievable. melania called me and she said, there is somebody who is so amazing, you have to see this. i came and and i watched these two incredible women, these two beautiful women, and i watched them go back and forth. crowd: trump! trump! trump! [yelling] crowd: trump! trump! trump!

mr. trump: i really believed if we took them into a room and just talked to them, it would be fine. we want strength. we want good health care. we want protection. we want orders. -- borders. we want the wall. if we could sit with them for about 10 minutes, maybe, maybe they would understand. say hello. >> how are you all doing? you know, it really amazes me how people from the other camp want to come in here and mess up our stuff because their stuff is boring. but we all know that donald j. trump is going to make america great again. [cheers]

>> we know that this is not a rally, that this is for our veterans, and that it is imperative that you get up and caucus for donald j. trump. while they are on the other side negotiatore got a and a job creator right here. [cheers] >> and it is up to all of us to help donald trump make america great again! [cheers and applause] mr. trump: i tell you what. they are something. right? was that something?

they have become a sensation all over the internet, all over everything, so we really appreciate it. so just to sum up, we have an amazing country. we need strong leadership, we need compassionate leadership. we need to take care of our health care. we need to take care of our borders, we need to make our military so strong, so big, so powerful, that nobody will want to mess with us. nobody, nobody, nobody will mess with it. [applause] mr. trump: all over, and i tell this story all the time, i see our generals, they are always on talk shows. they areretiring and talking about where the enemy is and i don't want generals to , talk. i want generals, and so do you folks, i want generals to have action. i want general george patton, we want general macarthur, we want people who are going to keep us safe. so i just say this.

we are a country that doesn't win anymore. we don't win anymore. when was the last time we won? we don't win on trade, we don't win in the military, we don't beat isis, we do not do anything. we are not good. we are not just in the same place. but we are going to get rid of obamacare and come up with a great, great, powerful, wonderful health care. [applause] mr. trump: we are going to win again. i tell you what, we are going to win again. we are going to win at every single level. we are not going to be laughed at throughout the rest of the world. because believe me, they laugh at our stupidity. they cannot believe what is happening. we send weapons over to our allies. they hear when sound of the bullet, they drop the weapons,

and people come back from the middle east and they tell me "mr. trump, they have better , weapons than we do, they have the new versions, they have the best weapons." it is not going to happen anymore. i will tell you. so this is a special night for me. i had no idea this was going to happen. we started out literally 24 hours ago, maybe less, we had no idea and we went out and we set up the website and i called some friends and we just cracked, the sign was just given, and we just cracked $6 million, right? 6 million. [cheers and applause] mr. trump: and we have outside a list of the organizations and the folks that are going to be getting this money. they are going to divide up and they are going to get a lot of money, everybody is going to get a lot of money, and they are very great, and we wanted to make sure that people are doing it with the heart and we have

picked out some really amazing, amazing veterans organizations. so this has turned out to be a much different evening. i thought this would be small . i didn't even know it was going to happen and it turned out to be a phenomenal, phenomenal night. i have gotten to meet some incredible veterans. i got to meet john wayne and your friends, and they are something. i am not going to mess with them, ok? [applause] mr. trump: and i want to thank my entire family. i will tell you, you've got vanessa, don, jared, success. ivanka's going to have a baby in two weeks. we have a hospital all lined up and i am doing great. i love the people of iowa and i said, it would be so great if you had your baby in iowa. stand up, honey, say hello.

[applause] mr. trump: i want that to happen! i want that to happen so badly. and my boy eric who has been fantastic and my staff who has been great and again, thank you, sir, for that $1 million. i will tell you what, a special guy and we love him. just to end an amazing evening. , you veterans are incredible people, brave beyond comprehension. on behalf of everybody in this country, in iowa but in this country i want to thank you for , the job that you do, because without you, we would not be here tonight. thank you all very much. fantastic people. thank you, everybody. thank you. thank you. [applause] up, wehis event wraps will take you live to the washington post and washington, d.c. for an interview with white

house chief of staff denis mcdonough. a series of tweets from last night, did donald trump's decision to skip the debate? meet the press says "donald trump took a big gamble in skipping the debate and it worked." donald trump tweeted out this, "iowa was amazing last night. the event could not have worked out better. we raised $6 million for our great vets. they were so happy and proud." we will take you to an interview with denis mcdonough on the legacy of the obama presidency. he will speaking with eugene robinson of the post. it will begin with a discussion of other pulitzer prize-winning journalists, including bob woodward.

should get underway momentarily. our road to the white house coverage on c-span and c-span2, as candidates crisscrossed the state of iowa, governor chris christie holding a town hall in ottumwa at 12:00 eastern. jeb bush is live from carroll. over on c-span2 in iowa city at 3:00 eastern, traveling with iowa senator chuck grassley. that will be on c-span2. >> you are right, time will tell the big story. fixturee is a permanent of the big story, but it also presents us with an opportunity. >> "the washington post" has evolved. has 80 newsroom designers, engineers, product managers throughout the

newsroom. >> this is a moment of great confidence at the post because we are able to reach so many more people than we were able to reach before. we have so many more tools that we did not have in the past. >> our goal is to go where our consumers are. >> this is an extraordinary news organization with a deep history, but also very much on the future for how people will get news in the future. you have broken every significant piece of news on this front. >> part of a fantastic reporting team from "the washington post" and washington post.com. welcome to the new york times, is just the beginning. >> in addition to the hard-hitting investigative

reporting, our team produces stuff that is fun, interesting, and the kind of thing that you learn something when you watch it. milestones, there is no more exciting time to be in the media business and no more exciting place to be than "the washington post." [applause] >> thank you. we have a little bit of propaganda, we cannot help ourselves. thank you all for coming. i am already baron, the executive editor. as always, we are honored to participate in the launch of the post's centennial celebration. we are especially pleased to do so in this new home to the post,

a place that is homage to our history and sets our course on the future. editorial page editor of the wall street journal was the first to ask if we would host a set of events for this occasion, and we quickly got back to him with an enthusiastic yes. believed inave long what the pulitzer prize represents, because we are proud of the 61 the post has one, because we believe the centennial is an opportunity to redeem the value of the pulitzer prize. first awarded in 1917, it recognizes excellence in the fields of journalism,,, and music. prizes, josephe i am deeplyclared " interested in the progress in allegation -- elevation of journalism.

regarding it as a noble profession and one of on equal importance for its influence upon the minds and morals of today, decades later, the pulitzer prize still has that elevating effect on journalism. this is a prize that asks us to be ambitious, to think more ,reatively, to dive more deeply to write with greater clarity and elegance, to produce work that has impact and makes us a better people. invite us to unearth what we never knew, or draw attention to what we failed to notice. it invites us to hold powerful interest to account and give voice to those who have fallen, or been pushed to the margins of our society. it invites us to clarify a world that often defies understanding. it also invites us to display the very best of our craft.

the best of our craft in writing and photography, but also the best in video and graphics and presentation. do,perhaps you feel as i every time we have not won a pulitzer prize is a grave injustice. [laughter] >> apparently you do. , but we know the truth, and the truth is this. no matter how much our organizations and journalists iset the prize, the truth the universe of exceptional journalism reaches far beyond the limited number of winners. we may be upset or saddened by a heartenedwe should be by the excellence we see in the finalists and in so many other entries. of centennial celebrations, it is worth reflecting on the meaning of this award. the pulitzers represent

standards, high standards in an era where we have seen standards he wrote or, under frontal assault. when we see so much distortion and deception, when we see lazy remindng, the pulitzers us we can take a different route. pursue the truth, be thorough, , delivernd forthright work that is captivating. in pointing us in that direction, the value of the pulitzers may be greater today than ever before. so thank you for being here to honor the pulitzers and all they represent. today, we have two terrific sessions that will allow us to do what the pulitzers asked us to do, and dig deep. the second will be a

conversation with denis mcdonough who will be interviewed by eugene robinson, winner of the pulitzer prize of 2009 for columns the previous year on a historic election. the first section is a panel that will assess the presidency of barack obama in the context of history, and moderating will be joe becker, a journalist of great distinction. she has broken stories on the u.s. programs of suspected terrorists, the penn state child abuse scandal, and vladimir putin's russia. recognized as one of the most notable books of 2014. earlier in her career while at "the washington post," she won the pulitzer prize in national reporting for a series on vice president cheney. i am pleased to turn the program

over to jo and her distinguished panel. [applause] jo: thank you all for being here, for joining us. we have a lot to talk about and not a lot of time so we are going to get right to it. at the end, we will try to save some time to take your questions. next to me, bob woodward. he and carl bernstein were the leaders on watergate, for which " when ihington post pulitzer prize in 1973. he was the main reporter again in 2002. go pto bob is paul's you

--aul gigot. asian wallng as they street journal, he was assigned to washington where he wrote a weekly column on politics that won the 2013 pulitzer prize. won to him, david meredith the pulitzer prize in 1993 for coverage of then candidate bill clinton. he was part of the team that won the 2008 pulitzer prize for the deadly shooting at virginia tech. the center foris ethics at harvard university and a professor. she is a political theorist. i am going to start with you, david. how much do you think this president has thought about his legacy, and what do you think he hopes it will be?

david: let me say how delighted i am to be here. in this incredible place. i grew up at a newspaper where there were cigarette butts on tubesoor and pneumatic and old men in suspenders. what this place is, is a different world. barack obama, throughout his presidency has thought about it deeply, he has met with a group of historians. i do not know if anyone on the stage was part of that. i was not. he would talk about what it meant to be a great president so he definitely wanted to be that. history is with -- written by the winners, but the first legacy will be written by barack obama himself. he will write a book and will probably get more money than any book and presidential history for that.

i would say that when he was just starting, if you remember he compared himself not to bill clinton but to ronald reagan. he wanted to be a president of consequence. i think that no matter what your ideology is, he has done that. from obamacare to opening up relations with cuba and what he is doing in iran, whether you agree or disagree to bailing out the auto industry, there have been a series of actions taken that i think add up to a president of consequence. i think also that there are many politicians and people of all change, justnot become more so. i think one of the things that a legacy president obama's

will show is that he did the job. disagree,u agree or he became more effective when he lost control of congress. jo: what do you think about what his legacy is going to be, and what remains to be told? there are even that we will not understand the consequences of four years. it is funny to pretend you are 50 years from now and look back on this moment. i think one thing is social and emotional, requires recognition. i got something out of my wallet that i have had since january 2009, which is my metro ticket the night of the obama administration -- inauguration. african-americans there is consistently a sense of ownership in this country that did not exist previously.

matter.that does i would also say that another fundamental change would be that i believe the obama administration, president obama has secured the principle that health care should be accessible for all. to find out what shape that will take i think is very much an open question, but i think the principle is not secure -- is secure. for me, the areas that look open and uncertain or the interesting combination of the relationship between the move for energy independence and foreign policy. i think there are ways and which obama's foreign policy would make sense. backdrop of the thought that it is not possible to do that overnight, the foreign policy looks erratic, uncertain. that is how i was pretty much split up, by the certain and

durable. i would be surprised if we do not want to talk about the changing relationships of african-americans, and health care for all but i'm sure there will be lots of debates about energy and foreign policy. said he wanted to be as transformative on the left as ronald reagan was on the right. transfer made of -- transformative or transformational? paul: i invited marty to host an event and he said, we need to get someone on the right. let me thank marty and jeff fred, it is wonderful that you did this and on behalf of the board, thank you very much. this is a wonderful space. i am very jealous.

, agree very much with what lot of what david and daniel said. david is right that he has viewed himself, he has wanted to be the progressive, the reagan in reverse. as he achieved that? i think the jury is very much out, and i would say even more than most presidents, his legacy, domestically in particular will depend on the election of another democratic candidate. so much of his domestic agenda has been done through executive order and through regulation. virtually his entire climate change plan is through executive regulation. ialth care agenda, while agree that even if republicans do sweep the elections they will not roll back coverage. they will rewrite the bill and replace it. i would argue that even if a democrat wins, they will rewrite

, one will attempt to rewrite the affordable care act because it is not sustainable in its present course. a quick word on foreign policy, if you look at the world, i think that it is even more up in the air about his legacy. while the cuba and iran deals are yet to be played out, particularly iran, and that has a chance to work although you can count me as a skeptic. i think the middle east, if you look at the world the president inherited and you look around and say, where is that world were stable, more ordered, where is it that there is more peace and prosperity? i have a hard time looking around the world and finding many places where that is the case, from clinton and europe to the south china sea -- from utin in europe to the south

china sea. : we found a level and depth of antipathy has surged over the past decades, with many going as far as to say the opposing party's policies threaten the nation. does president obama get a pass for failing, or do some of the blame lay on him? i hate to talk about something called a once said, everything depends on outcomes, and we do not know the outcome. paul, really you muted your criticism. paul: you have to think of the audience. bob: or you wanted to prove you are not a skunk.

jo: he is a chameleon. paul: i consider that a high compliment. bob: i think there is a way to describe this, and david hit on this, you have to measure how presidents learn and change. obama, the trajectory at the beginning in his first term, particularly on domestic policies, he was not a negotiator. i think he has become a negotiator now and realizes that inevitability in the political system, in a dealmaking is relationships with people in congress, particularly did not work with democrats. it was awful. i remember when the democrats

controlled the senate, one key senator, one of the very powerful committee chairman i was talking to about this, and i was kind of saying, obama has not connected with people. he said, i do not know how you can say that. in five years, he has called me twice. [laughter] once andld that story he said, do not tell it in public because the senators who got one call or zero calls will feel out of the loop. on foreign policy, i think he started out having breakfast with the key leader of one of , and he saidllies he likes obama and he is smart, but then he said something really true. he said no one is afraid of him in the world.

i think that is true. ithink he sent the message, am going to negotiate, and he has toughened up a little bit after that. the world is really a dangerous place. in sok the instability many places, if one goes off in the next year or two or three years, people are going to go and do the back fearing's, how did we get to this point? >> can i add to that? i do not want to talk about foreign policy because i do not know it, but i do understand obama and i would like to compare him with clinton for a second, and how they both dealt with congress and the rest of the world. they both came completely out of nowhere, out of southwest arkansas in hawaii, at of

dysfunctional families with alcoholic fathers and stepfathers. obama had the extra burden of trying to figure out who he was. they both had a lot to deal with , and they dealt with it in completely opposite ways that played out all the way through their presidencies. bill clinton did not deal with the dysfunction and his family, he just plowed right through it again and again. he became the ultimate survivor. he needed people to do that. transactional politics and life is what defined bill clinton, and that got him to the white house, got him in trouble in the white house, out of trouble, in trouble again, the repetitive cycle. with the sameealt problems in a completely different way, he tried to resolve them. he spent eight years of his life dealing with all of those issues , came out of it with a certain

self-confidence that he was an "integrated" person, and that got him all the way to the white house. in trouble in the white house, canuse he thought, if i resolve the internal conflicts of myself, why can't congress? this was a different perspective he had on life, and that has played out through his presidency. >> so is it the fault of mom and dad in congress? >> no, i am saying that is why he is the way he is. jo: he is a smart man and there were many articles written about his failure to reach out to congress. i think it is an over winning confidence, self-confidence, which has helped him rise that has made it much harder for him to deal with people in congress.

when you meet with president clinton, he would want to convince you that what you said was the smartest thing he had ever heard. paul, that is just fabulous. even may. it,ourse i did not believe what for that moment, you are a smart guy, is to president. who wouldlk to ceos say, it is all going to turn around, it is going to be fabulous. president obama once you to think he is smarter than you, as you beaten in an argument, and that is why your argument is wrong. that is a completely different kind of personality. >> as president you have to figure out a way to work year will, and this is what reagan did and clinton did in so many ways.

this we are going to find out in history. what we do not know is about the big stories of this year, going to be domestic and the economy or are they going to be in foreign affairs? it may be both, but what he has done or not done is going to be tested and certainly will be tested in the lab with the next president. jo: i would like to add a : i would-- danielle like to add a footnote about how obama has developed relationships. it is an issue for the kind of conversation he has had with the american people over time. he has no surrogates. this is an unusual feature for president. he has a very small group of whom he relies very profoundly. i think there is a link between his two expressions of regret,

regret about not being able to bridge the polarization in congress, and not having modernized the white house's office of communications. it is a core piece of the presidency and a core piece of being a politician, not a lawyer. i think at the end of the day for whatever reason, he turned out to be good at it. jo: even if he had those skills and the polarized world we live in, is it possible to bridge that kind of divide? even with the best of politicians, they were unable to have conversations because of the media environment we live in. should leaders be able to rise above that and have national conversation? part of it,at is but there are also infrastructure questions, questions about how we put conversations together in different contexts.

can you think about the underlying structure that makes various possibility -- conversations possible or not? nobody is doing that. it is something that we have to do, it is not optional, but it requires that underneath thinking about the structure of conversation. >> it is about time against the problem also. you have to spend time with people and you have to listen, and the negotiating process is very, very complex. like the iran deal, paul would disagree vehemently, i think the iran deal is a significant and brave accomplishment. anyone who knows anything about nuclear war will realize if you can take one country off the table for 10 years getting a bomb or reduce the likelihood they will get a bomb, that is a big deal.

barack obama lives in that world as the commander-in-chief in charge of the nuclear war plans. if you do any reporting on those, you find it is frightening. if you were the person who had to make decisions on that, you would work, like i think he has done and john kerry has done, to get a deal. imperfect, but just think if it works. jo: go ahead. >> if it works. i would make a couple of points. if after 10 years, iran does not have a nuclear weapon or has not made progress towards it and it is no proliferation elsewhere in the middle east, then it will have been a success with one other caveat. that is, will iran use the agreement as a shield to promote its imperial ambitions in the middle east? that is also something careful

to watch. i think the jury is out on that. i don't know how it will end up. bob: if you are the president and you have been the military football carries the around with the book of options that tells you that you can by yourself launch nuclear weapons. and in the last column it says casualties, estimated, 40 million people, 100 million people. i mean this is a nightmare. anything to reduce the likelihood of that nightmare ought to be applauded. >> if the saudis get a nuclear weapon, that turns out not to have been a successful deal. jo: we will turn to foreign policy in one second. i want to ask one more question of david on this question of his ability to communicate or inability to communicate with congress. i understand where you are coming from. what do you think he might have been able to accomplish and what

would his legacy look like had he had that skill were developed that skill quicker? david: as i said, i think given the fact he was not good at that, he accomplished as much or more than bill clinton, who was the best at it. whether it would have been more or not, i think part of it -- you know, if he had made the grand bargain with john boehner, but there were so many other variables to that going on as bob has written about. jo: bob, do you want to jump in? bob: both sides are to blame. there are deals obama should have taken. at the same time, boehner did not know how to do it. in some of these meetings effectively blackmailed or tried to blackmail obama. ,bama, it is kind of shocking

this is part of the process instead of clearing the room and telling the speaker of the house we are not going to have a very good relationship if you try to blackmail me. i agree would think -- he could have done more with congress. but i think it was more talking to the public. as danielle said, developing surrogates. he started as a community organizer. wasn issue like gun control so much at the heart of what he believed in, his inability to develop a counter to the n.r.a. is a failing. if you look at any polling, you will see a huge percentage majorities support not just controlling the automatic weapons but further gun control than that. jo: right before the election. david: he could have developed something there if he had better skills. i thinkorical skills

are overrated in terms of his ability to develop a public following on actual issues as opposed to just getting elected. jo: i do want to turn to foreign policy now. obama's aides famously summed it stuff" to't do stupid put it kindly. hillary rodham clinton said that does not a policy, that is a slogan in a rare moment of pique . danielle, how much of a departure is his foreign-policy? danielle: that is a good question. i think the long arc of history, there are people, there are caps of people he fits with. we have had substantial. where we were more inward looking. i think what matters in terms of the historical picture, his effort to steer the ship away from the pattern established in

george w. bush's administration. but without sufficient clarity about the shape of the world, the emergent shape of the world. i think it is a hard problem. that needs to be said in the first instance. jo: is that a communications issue or a deeper issue of his foreign policy being a little incoherent? danielle: my own view is there is incoherence in the foreign policy, so i think it has been very smart to focus on asia, building relationships there. i think that is a success. to do that at the expense of our engagement with europe i think has been a substantial cost. we don't talk a lot about the fact we have in various ways been relatively disengaged in europe. i think we see the results of that in what is happening there. it is critical for what we are able to do in the middle east. i do think there were some smart ideas, but the whole picture did not coalesce.

said unintentionally and with goodwill message that was interpreted probably as weakness. this paragraph from his first inaugural, stunning to go back and look at this, where he says our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint. now, that does not work in a world where you have russia and syria and al qaeda and isis and so forth. i think when people really do the serious histories, you are going to see the leaders of iran said he is kind of begging to not have a fight. a president who has the biggest the most potent

military in the world, needs to scare people. and he did not. jo: i'm going to jump in -- danielle: there's a difference between restraint and isolationism. obama could have and should have done more early on to support the syrian rebels against assad. and then went into that to justify his inaction. fred wrote this may be the most surprising of his legacies, not just that he presided over humanitarian disasters of apocalyptic proportions but he soothed the american people into feeling no responsibility. reaction? >> a good piece. >> i think it is more than a communications issue. it is a signal of weakness but more than that. these were strategic choices the president made. we will find out what he made them. he viewed himself as the anti-bush. he was not going to commit

american forces in a way that president bush had. jo: to be fair, there was not a lot of bipartisan support for another war anywhere. paul: absolutely. that is one of the reasons he won the election. but that has consequences. just as you can point to iraq as mishandled because an over-willingness to intervene, syria is a counter example of what happens when you decide to look at a burning building or a burning country and say we will let it burn. general petraeus calls it a chernobyl radiating throughout the world. the key decision there was to stay out of syria, do nothing, number one. number two, to withdraw from iraq totally. that became the incubator of islamic state. i think we see the consequences radiating out. maybe secretary of state kerry can pull off a miracle in syria in the next year. president ishis

handing the next president a real problem in the middle east. danielle: a perceived one, it must be said. >> is the middle east better now than it was in 2009? that is the key question. danielle: better than 2001? bob: it is tough terror story -- territory, no question. i don't think these were strategic decisions. maybe part of the problem was it was not thought enough about those terms. andink they came from obama his people. you have pointed out there is an internal drive. obama is in charge. he does not like war. he hates war. he wants to avoid work. -- war. jo: i think his aides would say he avoids the slippery slope.

david? david: he does not like war. he did say in the speech that got him elected in 2002, i'm not against all wars. bob: just dumb wars. david: he is not a pacifist. bob: i spent a lot of time on the subject with him and others. as he said in his nobel prize except in speech, war is an expression of human folly. i think he is right about that. jo: we have got to go to the audience. i'm going to ask one more round of questions. one question and then we will take your questions because we don't have a lot of time left. in 2007, bill keller, executive times"of "the new york said it was the most hostile administrations since the nixon administration. was the mostma's

secretive white house she had ever worked with. the was echoed by "washington post" former editor who said this administration's war on leaks is the most aggressive i have seen since the nixon administration. bob, do you agree with that assessment? we all rely on leaked information to do stories. bob: no. leaks or when the "new york times" or "wall street journal" have a good story. [laughter] bob: right? jo: do you agree with the assessment, most secretive? bob: aggressive, thoughtful wording. [laughter] bob: of course, no one likes secrecy. how do you compare this and that? i mean, david spent time with obama. i have been able to interview

obama, find out what goes on. you need a lot of time. jo: so you don't agree it is the most secretive since the nixon administration? bob: i'm going to give phoenix and administration the academy award. [laughter] david: lifetime achievement award? jo: how do you feel about the fact that high-ranking white house officials who talk to you and many of us about things that are classified in nature do not get prosecuted, yet lower people do? bob: well, they have made a mistake. it is a stupid system. we can still find out some things but never enough. sense beggingin a for transparency. but the key is time. you have got to be able to spend months and sometimes years on these things. you can chip away. the internet environment of

impatience in speed does not lend itself to that. jo: hopefully we will have time to take a couple of quick questions. anybody? there are microphones. yes, no? [laughter] i have a question it goes back to what danielle said at the start. in some ways, this president peeks out on his first day. well, i said it. jo: where is the question? >> the moment he becomes the first african american president, he knows he has made a mark in history. i wonder in the long span of things when everyone on the panel thinks that will look like 50 years from now. in terms of the change in this participatory era we are living in of those disenfranchised citizens.

we and his presidency at a time of real racial strife. jo: danielle, do you want to answer that? >> how is that going to play out? jo: let's let daniel answer. it is also the case that i think within groups of people organized and organizing, they are working with a sense of a political stake in the country and they are engaging in seeking legal change, proposing policy changes, and so forth, to a greater degree than gets covered perhaps. i do think that is a different picture of politics around race than we had prior to barack obama's election. i think it is a significant energizing of people as political actors and agents connecting to political institutions. i would not be surprised to see a crop of people entering politics in 10 years coming out of this moment as well. jo: time for one more question. anybody?

welcome. >> i have a question about rahm emanuel. and what impact he had on obama's legacy and what impact obama has now had on chicago. daniel: that is a tough one. jo: david, do you want to take a stab at it? david: i am a fan of rahm emanuel, unlike a lot of people these days. i would say his impact on the obama administration has been largely to minimus. i don't know about the president's impact on chicago. but he was a short timer as chief of staff. i think most of the key decisions did not come through rahm. jo: we could go on and on because we have not even gotten to half of the things we wanted to talk about. we've got to turn it over. thank you for being here and sharing your thoughts. now joining us is gene robinson

of the "washington post" who will lead a discussion with denis mcdonough. [applause]

>> hello, everybody. hello. first, let me thank our first .anel you keep it up nicely for aspirin i'm gene robinson here with our special guest. [applause] mr. robinson: our special guest who took time out from his busy schedule, and it is one of the busiest in washington, i will tell you. the president is somewhat demanding, i hear. denis mcdonough, who is white house chief of staff. he is the 27th white house chief of staff. the previous 26 are the stooped and broken figures you see wandering around washington occasionally because of the nature of the job. joined the administration in 2010 as the head of strategic indications. he quickly became the deputy national security advisor and became chief of staff in 2013.

denis, thank you so much for being here today. we just heard a fabulous panel giving us a fairly definitive assessment of the obama legacy. by my count, there is a year left. minus one week. donecan the president get in this lame-duck year? can you name his three top priorities that he can actually accomplish in this last year? mr. mcdonough: first of all, thank you for the opportunity to be here. it is a beautiful new building. i would say a couple of things. the way we see it is the way you finished the question namely. we have yet another half of the fourth quarter of this administration, so we are working hard on that. we are not coasting through the year. what the president said to us about three weeks ago is he will

be asking himself throughout whenever we are going to do something, he's going to ask himself why not. we will be pushing hard on that, as we did the last year when people were asking us the same question. i would stack up his year seven against any year seven when we think about things we were able to congress from iran and cuba to the budget agreement to the i.m.f. reforms. i would be happy to come back to that. in terms of the year had, we are open for business. we are open for business with congress. we are also going to pull every lever we can. i will name a couple of things. criminal justice reform. there are things we think we can and should do with congress. but there are things we know we will do of the president's on the cord.

on the economy, we have an opportunity with the biggest free-trade agreement in history in the t.p.p., and we will continue to press congress to do that. i think those are two pretty big examples. in the main, we will be pushing congress to work with us. we are open for business on that. but if they are not willing to act, we are going to pull every lever we can. mr. robinson: how much concern is there in the white house that much of what the president did could be seen as fragile in the sense that if it was done by executive order or regulation could be undone by executive order or regulation. for example, what he did on immigration. some of what he has done on guns . a lot of what he has done on climate change. it came through the executive and regulatory process rather than congress. it could be an done.

mr. mcdonough: i worry about a lot of things. do i wish congress would have passed cap and trade several years ago? sure. but the steps we are taking on the clean power plant, now arermed by the courts, entirely within the mainstream of regulatory authority of the president. instance, ridet the wave of transition from cold to cleaner natural gas. we are trying to give a boost to cleaner still renewables. i think there is a question of policy on that. i think we are pushing as hard as we can on policy. but there is also a question of what is actually happening on the ground. because of some of the tax changes that just went through at the end of the last year with pretty dramatic expansions of the solar and wind tax credits, i think you are going to see a

continuing revolution in the generation of electricity that will keep apace not only with what we need to do on climate that will exceed that. i think the next president will not be able to whether he or she wants to change it. trumpbinson: president will have facts on the ground he will not be able to or want to undo. mr. mcdonough: that is my belief. that is the case across the board. i think in terms of the energy revolution we have seen in this country to include electricity generation, i think it is beyond what anybody would have thought when we started to make some of those investments couple of years ago. mr. robinson: let's talk a little bit about foreign policy. discussiontart that without mentioning syria. mr. mcdonough: i agree with you.

mr. robinson, talk about the problem from hell, it is the problem from hell. what kind of syria will the president we behind in a year? syria still in the throes of civil war, humanitarian disaster , part of it in the hands of the isis caliphate, or some different syria? mr. mcdonough. we have laid out a strategy that recognizes this will not be the first civil war resolved by means other than politics. that is to say there has got to be a political settlement among the syrians to what happens in syria. we have an overriding and very immediate concern about the threats posed to us in the homeland, to our interests and our friends, by isil. so we will continue to push aggressively with our own kinetic force but also by

mustering syrian and iraqi forces who ultimately are going to have to govern the spaces they push isil out of. third is we are going to continue to be a leader on addressing the humanitarian challenge that comes from the ongoing chaos in the country. we have three lines of effort. what we want to be able to present the next president is a stable set of partners as we address those. we would like to have a political process that all the parties in syria have engaged in. i think we have made some progress on that, notwithstanding today's news. and we are going to see isil on a pathway to its ultimate destruction. mr. robinson: when do you project that will start to work? when does the administration project a policy will start bearing fruit? mr. mcdonough: as it relates to the council isil effort, i would say we have seen important progress over the course of the

last several months. it is not by any means sufficient. we will continue to press that very aggressively. both with our partners in the region, state actors, with forces on the ground who have to take the fight to isolate to control, to hold ground they take back from them. of our own accord, using the kind of kinetics we have seen. we have seen good, important progress. but it is insufficient. we will continue to lean on that. as it relates to the political process, we have through secretary kerry's efforts in the geneva process a pathway forward for the parties to work. the biggest and most immediate challenge as it relates to the spillover is the refugee challenge. we will continue to work that. to worknson: continue that, including perhaps opening our doors to more refugees? mr. mcdonough: not opening our

doors but rather continuing the decades long, generations long, tradition of maintaining the doors open in this country as a source of refuge to the world's most vulnerable. admirablyeen the case in this country since our earliest days. it is the president's intention to maintain that. official in the once of a told me conversation with the president in which the president was asked, how do you wish to be remembered? the context was foreign policy. the president answered he wanted to be remembered as the president who began rapprochement between the muslim world and the west. that has not happened. is that a disappointment? how does he think about that? how does he think about the fact

he came into office perhaps uniquely suited because of his father's heritage, because of who he was and where he came from, perhaps uniquely suited to be a bridge figure between the two civilizations, and it hasn't happened? mr. mcdonough: it does not sound familiar to me. i think when i hear the president talk about foreign policy, i think he talks first and foremost about maintaining the strong national defense and protecting this country. overseas our influence in the most general sense. and i think in both of those, there is no question he has succeeded in that and will be remembered as the same. i think as it relates to the broader question of the relation definedthis broadly

islim world and the west, think the president has set out a series of challenges to our friends in the muslim world. because i think first of all to suggest there is one muslim world is a mistake. between the saudi's and iranians, there are still deep divisions between the shia and sunni. i think as we are seeing play among sunni, to include actors like i saw, -- isil, there still deep divisions within sunni islam. those divisions are not going to be resolved by the united states. those are going to be divisions that have to be resolved by those countries, by religious leaders. what we will do in that context

is partner with those friends who want to partner with us. and we will aggressively, very aggressively defend our interests. that includes against this thought inof islamic my view, namely isil. mr. robinson: speaking of what the united states will do, we are now involved in aggressive actions against isis were isil -- or isil not only in iraq and syria but elsewhere as well. recently, there has been a lot of talk about perhaps a more dramatic escalation of what we are doing in libya. is there a need for that? is that in the offing? are we going to open a new front in libya? mr. mcdonough: i would say a couple of things about the. first of all, i think the reporting not only by people who

work in this building and are in this audience now, but among the press generally on isil and on brand ission of its remarkable. it rivals and is as good as anything we have access to. we owe a debt of gratitude to this profession for that. secondly, i think what that reporting tells us is isil is, for a variety of reasons, to include the pressure they are under in syria, but also because of the chaos in a place like libya, is looking to expand. we are eyes light up and about that. -- we are eyes wide open about that. what this president has said is we will exercise all the elements of our power to protect our interests where we need to, to include the use of force. he saw that last